Cape Breton's Magazine

Shore at Petit-de-Grat ?- ' . circa 1940 feliS*"/''.'AS'' way! A cent a pound, cent and a half, two cents a pound. And we put in our. mind to salt the fish, salt the had? dock. Well, we used to go and purse, and then come ashore, dress those fish, split it, and salted them. We used to work from 5, 6 o'clock in the morning until 2, 3 o'clock the next day. Right through days and night. We were pursing in the after? noon, and then we used to salt it at night. And we did that for two months and a half. We salted over 200 punch? eons of haddock. When we got a sale for it, the best sale we could get, I think, was 4c a pound. And we had to pay all the ex? penses --puncheons , salt, and the few men we had hired to help us. When we settled after the season was over, we had $18 a man, clear, for two months and a half work. That was some cheque! (It would seem it would take years and years to see $12,000.) Yes, but you'd be surprised there. We used to make 3 or 4 thousand dollars a man, in two months. I'd say it's about 45 years ago. I remember sometimes--I used to pay the men every week, because I was captain; I was supposed to deliver the envelope every week, see--and we used to make a thousand dollars in one week, out of that small mon- ** ' ??'*"/*'dr- ??v;".'> "T'*'' C'''-. .'*-"''"''*"V'tv*-'f-"' ''tsOfm'i ey you were getting for the fish. You must have taken a few fish, in order to do that. A thousand dollars a man, 8 men, besides what you were paying on the trap. That's gone a long time ago. The fish is gone, the trap is gone, and everything is gone. You can't get a fish now, the same place, you can't get a fish there to eat. At that time, you didn't have to go too far out. Five minutes outside of here was good enough. Now you have to go two or three hours in order to get some. And in the same place where we used to get the haddock, at that time, now you can't get enough for a meal. You can't get one Some people claim it's the dragger, or they say it's the causeway. I feel the draggers didn't help any. But I've got a different story on that, I think myself--at that Robin, Jones & Whitman, Inc. SUPPLIERS OF: Hardware • Clothing • Giftware Paint 6e Wallpaper ?? Building Supplies Souvenirs Inverness 258-2241 • Cheticamp 224-2022 ROBIN'S Serving Canadians Proudly for over 200 Years Serving the City of Sydney for Over 75 Years Scotiabank 3 THE BANK OF NOVA SCOTIA LLOYD MacDONALD SALES |cfe.|JIUt=liT?l Our 26th Year KINGS ROAD - SYDNEY Toll Free 1-800-565-9427 "Service Is a Feature, Not a Promise" Handcrafts Produced in Our Workshops: Screenprinting, Metal Moulding Local Handcrafts P. 0. Box 83, Louisbourg, N. S. Other (902) 733-3233 BOA IMO Maritime Items Louisbourg Craft Workshops Refreshments! Available Guided Toursl of Workshops No Admission Fee OPEN MAY 1 TO OCTOBER 31 Mid June - Mid Sep. Weekdays: 9-9 (75)